Shoulder surgery? Have you had one yet?

6 surgeries---2 on right, 4 on left. Any questions? Yes, In fact I do have a few questions. What do you contribute your surgeries too? Over use? Why did your shoulders go bad? Is it a genetic thing or did you simply over use your shoulders? By the way, Geochuck, did you ever swim against Ford Kono? "Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try." - Yoda

i think i meant on the other hand--not on the contrary-:whiteflag: My doctor urged me to get my shoulder out and moving and attempting streamline everyday--she never expected i would have full rom by day 3, but expected it would come within the first 2 weeks. Having said that I know many people young and older who have had surgeries and had bad experiences, but after my ordeal with my surgeon I would NEVER have another surgery with another surgeon (knee or shoulder surgery that is). She cost me about 3 years of graduate school tuition for both surgeries but I couldn't have asked for a better recovery or overall situation and after hearing horror stories I wouldn't risk changing it up at all. im just thankful thats all:smooch:

forums.usms.org/showthread.php. I have a 5 part plan of attack for staying in the water. Some of it is unconventional, but it seems to work for me. At least, I haven't quit yet. I do: 1. rotator cuff & stability exercises even though I hate them and they are really boring; 2. periodic ART, www.activerelease.com; 3. I wear fins a lot to avoid stressing the shoulder further. Purists hate this, but I have no doubt that it helps me tremendously. :thhbbb: It has the added benefit of really helping my SDKs. 4. I am currently trying prolotherapy, www.treatingpain.com, to attempt to essentially replace/repair the micro-tearing that causes the pain. Many athletes use this method, but not many swimmers. It is a long process and painful procedure. But I am doing it because otherwise, with my condition, I coud get early arthritis in the shoulder; 5. I do not swim mega yardage and I cross train. I don't do that much freestyle, which seems to aggravate it the most. I don't use paddles, pull buoys or kickboards, which can aggravate shoulders. Quality over quantity for me. Beth is right. Fly is also hard on shoulders IMHO. I wish I didn't like fly so much. Good luck Shark. I hope you avoid injury and stay healthy! Just as I suspected. Thanks for the link to the previous thread. "Don't wait for the boat, swim to the island." -unknown

I don't have any injury pain (yet). :banana: Donna That is good to hear. Thanks for the comment. "May you prosper. One and all." - unknown

Morgan - How is your shoulder now? My shoulders are more or less still very good. I did have a lot of pain last year, but it wasn't the same type of pain I had had originally--this pain was more associated with knots that I had that developed all along my scapula and were pulling on my rotator cuff--IDK....thats what they tell me. I actually thought I had a knot in May of my freshman year of college, in that same region that my PT was going to try to work on but after first working on it-he actually ended up referring me for scans because he thought it might be a tumor...thankfully it wasn't. Last year I had acupuncture 1-2 times every 2 weeks and that really helped--he broke up the knots and used the needles to release pressure along my shoulder and upper back. I will probably do that again this year and see a chiropractor on a regular basis because I was told that I might have some of my shoulder pain because of misalignments in my back which have my shoulders a little lopsided which would cause me to over pull with the one shoulder. But I still have about 95% of the proper Range of motion--and that is such a relief having come from having less than 50% before the surgeries...like I said if it hadn't been for the surgeries I wasn't going to be able to swim on a collegiate team.

Two shoulder surgeries on the same shoulder, the left one. One in 1993 and one in 1995. The first surgery was for impingement and fractured collarbone; the second one was rotator. Impingement was far worse recovery wise than the rotator. I was 45 years old on the first one and 47 on the second one. My downtime wasn't too bad, about 8-10 weeks total for each surgery, but was in PT about 3 to 4 months. My injuries were due to 40 years of swimming; mainly backstroke with a huge rotational stroke. The left shoulder just finally had had too much. And now I am training for a 20 mile long distance swim in about a year. And, I have learned to differentiate between overuse soreness/pain and injury pain. I don't have any injury pain (yet). :banana: Donna

Read this in the WSJ. Shoulder surgery definitely sounds absolutely awful. online.wsj.com/.../SB120104648002708127.html

I have a bad AC joint and a SLAP tear. Thought about surgery. My doctor's advice was if your injury is merely a nuisance then don't get the surgery, but if the pain and performance is interfering with your life and activities then get the surgery. I opted for no surgery. My advice for avoiding shoulder problems (and this goes for those of you who don't have any issues YET). --Do RC and shoulder exercises several nights a week. All you need is a few therabands and some free weights. A solid program takes 10 minutes. ALL SWIMMERS SHOULD BE DOING THIS SEVERAL DAYS A WEEK!!!! --Do NOT stretch before swimming. Instead warm up slowly. After you swim there are a few stretches that are okay (search the forum) but absolutely avoid stretching the shoulder capsule. --Focus, focus, focus on technique. Bad technique can have a huge impact on your shoulder. For me this means that when I swim, it's not about yardage, but about drills and refining my stroke. Different mindset. --Try fistgloves. These take a lot of strain off my shoulder and force me to focus on swimming more with my core and back muscles. --Swim all strokes at every workout. Not only is it more fun, but it helps your joints which do not take kindly to repetitive action. --For all strokes: stop thinking about pulling your arms through the water and instead picture yourself anchoring your arms in the water and using your back and core to rotate or undulate your body forward. Good luck

I have a bad AC joint and a SLAP tear. Thought about surgery. My doctor's advice was if your injury is merely a nuisance then don't get the surgery, but if the pain and performance is interfering with your life and activities then get the surgery. I opted for no surgery. My advice for avoiding shoulder problems (and this goes for those of you who don't have any issues YET). --Do RC and shoulder exercises several nights a week. All you need is a few therabands and some free weights. A solid program takes 10 minutes. ALL SWIMMERS SHOULD BE DOING THIS SEVERAL DAYS A WEEK!!!! --Do NOT stretch before swimming. Instead warm up slowly. After you swim there are a few stretches that are okay (search the forum) but absolutely avoid stretching the shoulder capsule. --Focus, focus, focus on technique. Bad technique can have a huge impact on your shoulder. For me this means that when I swim, it's not about yardage, but about drills and refining my stroke. Different mindset. --Try fistgloves. These take a lot of strain off my shoulder and force me to focus on swimming more with my core and back muscles. --Swim all strokes at every workout. Not only is it more fun, but it helps your joints which do not take kindly to repetitive action. --For all strokes: stop thinking about pulling your arms through the water and instead picture yourself anchoring your arms in the water and using your back and core to rotate or undulate your body forward. Good luck Zegmal, I have been using small 6lb medicine balls to do 3 way straight arm shoulder raises. Hold the ball in your hand, with a straight arm, lift 1st to the front 10x, to the side 10x, to the back 10x. 2 sets with each arm before I get in to swim. It takes less than 10 minutes and really warms up my shoulders and gets my heart rate up. You can also use them for quick bicep and tricep exercises. I have my hs team toss the balls vertical 30x each arm to work the lats, delts, tris, bis, forearms and wrists. I do these once a week with them and I got to tell you, it really does work all of those muscles. The balls can be found at fitness1st.com